Self-locking device for adjusting apparatus in packing machines



May 30, 1933. G'ANGLER 1,911,821

SELF LOCKING DEVICE FOR ADJUSTING APPARATUS IN PACKING MACHINES Filed Dec. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 5, ,1 Gang/er" INVENTOR:

May 30, 1933. P GANGLER 1,911,821

SELF LOCKING DEVICE FOR ADJUSTING APPARATUS IN PACKING MACHINES Filed Dec. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 3 E i m Paul Gangfif' ,INVENTOR Attorney.

May 30, 1933. R GANGLER 1,911,821

SELF LOCKING DEVICE FOR ADJUSTING APPARATUS I N PACKING MACHINES Filed Dec. 16, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 l au/ Gang VENTOR;

' Attorney Patented May 39, 1933 i UNITED sTATEs PATENT ()FFICE PAUL carnelian, or ESSLINGEN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR To FIRM FR. HESSER, MASCI-IIN-. ENFABRIK-AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, or srrrtr'renar-cimnsrar'r, GERMANY SELF-LOOKING DEVICE FOR, ADJUSTING APPARATUS IN PAGKING'MAGHINES Application filed December 16, 1930, Serial No. 502,673, and in Germany December 19, 1929.

, This invention relates to the self-locking devices for the adjusting apparatus of height regulating equipments, for instance for the bottom plates of label piling receptacles or feed receptacles, in packing-and similar Inachines. In contrast with the known locking devices of thiskind, my invention consists in effecting the locking by means of a movably arranged clamping element, such as a '10 ball or a roller, which ismoved and maintained by means of a suitable force into automatic clamping engagement between a movable part of the adjusting device and a stationary abutment surface, and which for the purpose of releasing the lock is moved out of frictional contact against the resistance of the said force. The application of such a self-locking ball or similarly acting clamping element for the locking device of height regulating apparatus of packing or similar machines results apart from the simplicity of construction in an advantage which is of particular importance, just for height regulating apparatus, inasmuch as it permits of an extremely fine and accurate adjustment;

In the accompanying drawings two embodiments of my invention are illustrated by way of example. 7

Fig. 1 shows a vertical diagrammatic section through an automatic regulating ap paratus equipped with the improved locking device for the pile of sheets of packing, wrapping bag manufacturing and similar machines,

Figure la shows in elevation and on a smaller scale, the mechanism for withdrawing the sheets individually from the pile;

Figure 1b shows in detail, a part of the mechanism shown in Figure 1a.

Fig. 2 shows in a diagrammatic plan, an adjusting apparatus for the bottom plates of the conveyor receptacles of packing and similar machines equipped with the improved locking device,

Fig. 3 represents a portion of the packing machine in plan, and V Fig. 4 shows the working station V of Fig. 3in elevation.

In the device shown in Figs. 1, 1a and 1b the topmostsheet or label of paper of a pile St resting upon the bottom plate 1) between it the lateral guide rails 42 is to be withdrawn by a glue stamp L and conveyed to any working station for further treatment. For this purpose, the glue stamp L is secured to a slide 'w adapted to be moved to and fro on a rail 10' adapted to be moved up and-down. The

slide to is connected by a link 6 to a doublearmed lever i which is rotatably mounted in the socket to. An oscillating movement may be imparted to the lever 2' by means of a rod to operated in thewell' known manner by a suitable eccentric to acting on an anti-friction roller $0 of the rod @0 The rail w is secured to a rod/w guided for vertical reciprocation in a sleeve w" mounted on the table w. The reciprocating movement is imparted to the rod w by means of a doublearmed lever @12 which is rotatably mounted in a bracket w and operated in the well known manner by a suitable eccentric w Fig. 1 acting onan anti-friction roller w of the lever w. The eccentrics w and @0 are secured to the driving shaft w. The bottom plate 20 is adapted to be vertically moved or displaced in the box-like guide Q) by means of a rod Z and is'held through a rope'r under the action of a weight m which has the tendency to move the rod Z, plate 39 and pile St up wards.

The device for arresting this movement consists of a-ball or roller 70 adapted to move inthe chamber formed by the guide casing or box g and which by a suitable force is ordinarily moved into, automatically clamping frictional engagement with the rod Z and a corresponding oblique counter or cam surface U and held in this position.

The force acting on the ball consists in the case illustrated of a spring n placed between the ball is and a seating g in the casing. For releasing the lock, there rests upon the ball is, opposite to the spring a, a freely movable rod h guided in the housing. On the said operating slide to of the glue stamp L there is mounted an arm a with a stop a which in the position of the stamp 'Lfor withdrawing a sheet from the pile St comesto lie above a. rod 2) vertically guided in the eyes 0 andd of the pile receptacle 1) and which stands under the action of a spring 6" mounted between the eye (Z and a collar 6 fixed upon the rod 6.

Below the rod 7) there is upon an arm g" of the guide housing 9 pivoted by means of a pin g, a lever f which by means of a spring f is kept out of engagement with the upper end of the pushrod h, said spring acting to swing the lever f upwards until the arm f" secured to the pin 9 engages a stop 9 of the arm g.

If for the withdrawal of the topmost sheet or label from the pile St by the glue stamp L, the glue stamp Lois moved downwards upon said sheet by the rail w and slide to and the described operating mechanism 10 w w. By the downward movement of the stamp L, the stop a forces the rod 7) downwards against the resistance of the spring Z) against the lever 7 which in its turn'moves the pushrod h and" thus the ball is out of frictional engagementwith the rod Z against the resistance of the spring a so that the rod can now be freely moved upwards by the weight 772 and presses the pile St against the glue stamp L. \Vhen the glue stamp L is lifted again by its operating mechanism, the rod 5 flies upwards and the lever f out of engagement with the pushrod h, so that the ball is is now at once brought into clamping engagement with the rod Z and the cam face a by means of the spring a. I

- In the lifted position of the glue stamp L, the slide 10 with the glue stamp L is's-hifted on the rail w" by the said operating mechanism e, i, w, 'w so as to convey the withdrawn sheet to the desired working station, as is well known in the art.

It will be understood that'the self-locking mechanism described is equally well applicable to piling devices of any other machine in which the pile is reduced sheet by sheet and the pile should move forward or upward in correspondence with the removal of sheets and the reduction in height of the pile.

Figs. 2 to 4 of the drawings show'the application of my invention to the adjusting apparatus for the bottom'plates p of the conveyor receptacles or containers 10 of a packing machine, and particularly of the machine for, making, filling and closing paper bags, whichforms the object of my copending patent application Serial No. 502,672, filed December 16, 1930. As particularly c escribed and illustrated in my said co-pending patent application, the conveyor boxes 10 are mounted in the well known manner on an intermittently rotated wheel which is indi cated at 212 of Fig. 2, and gradually carry the bagsfrom the station I, Fig. 3, to the various filling, shaking, closing and other working stations II, III, IV and so on of the packing machine. The plate p of each container or receptacle 10 is by means of a rod Z vertically guided in a block 9 provided with a cavity and mounted on the conveyor wheel 212. As clamping means is again employed a ball or roller which by means of a spring a is moved into and held in automatic frictional clamping engagement with the rod Z and a suitably inclined sidewall a of the chamber formed in the housing g is used; said sidewall a acting as counter or abutment surface. The pushrod h is vertically guided in the housing 9' below the roller or ball 70.

Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate the special application of my invention in the case in which a shaking upwards and downwards motion of the bottom plate 39 is to be carried out for the purpose of jolting and thus levelling the material filled into the bag, as fully de scribed in my said co-pending application. Thisjolting takes place at the working stations II, III and IV, Fig. 3, of the packing machine. For this purpose, there extends in the length of the jolting track, from the station II to thestation V, below the path of motion of the pushrods 72, a stationary rail 8. As also particularly described in my said co-pending patent application, the rails is mounted to angles 216 fixed on the bed plate 215 of'the machine andextends at 'such a height that prior to reaching the central position of station II and up to its end in front of the station V, it will raise the pushrod h running on to the inclined end of this rail before the station II, sothat the ball or roller 70 is raised thereby against the resistance of the spring a out of the frictional engagement with the rod Z and the counter face u and thus releases the rod Z. During the advance of the conveyor box to the working station II, the rod Z has furthermore passed over a'rail section t with a recess Z. The rail section t is fixed to an arm w to which a vertically reciprocating motion can be imparted by a rod y. Since the rod Z has been released by the clamping device k, the bag resting upon the bottom plate may by means of the rail section If, the rod Z and the bottom plate p be pushed over the discharge hopper of the filling device, not illustrated in the drawings, arranged over the working station II- and also be subjected to a shaking motion during the filling process due to the jolting vertical reciprocating motion.

- At the working stations III and IV, the clamping device remains also ino erative by the pushrod it being raised. A ter leaving the rail section 6, the rod Z has'with its notch or recess Z passed over a rail 2? which is adapted to be vertically rocked by leversw', m and a rod y, in order to effect a further jolting of the material filled into the bag, all as described in my said co-pending application of even date.

The two rails s and t terminate in front of the next working station V of the packing machine so that the recess of the rod Z slides ofi the rail 25 and the pu'shrod k off the rail 8, and the ball is is moved by the spring 01/ into clamping engagement with the rod Z and the abutment M. In order to align at the working station V the bag with the surface of its contents at the height of the closing edge of the head closure to be carried out at the following working stations, a pushrod 31 passes underneath the rod Z and lifts the rod together with the bottom plate and the bag so far, until the bag finds a resistance at its filling level on the upper plunger 32 previously lowered into the bag. This process is also fully described in my copending patent application. The upwards motion of the rod Z may without the necessity of raising the pushrod h be carried out without interference, because the roller k now rolls off on the surface of the guide rod Z facing it and is thus lifted up as it is able to deviate towards the top against the resist ance of the spring 72. As soon as the upwards motion of the rod Z has come to an end and the pushrod 31 commences its downward motion, the roller is is forced downwards by the spring at so that it directly and immediately takes up its clamping position again and thus prevents therod Z with the bottom plate 10 and the bag from descending. The bag is hereby maintained in the accurately adjusted position and level during the closing or sealing operation which takes place at the following working stations.

From the preceding specification it will be readily understood that the improved locking or clamping device may equally well be applied to other adjusting, regulating or similar devices of packing, wrapping and i the like machines where like or similar objects are to be attained, and that structural modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What I claim, is:

1. In an apparatus of the character described, the combination of a support for a stack of articles to be fed, a rod projecting from said support, means normally urging said rod and support to move in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the rod, a housing having a cavity therein through which said rod extends, one wall of said cavity having a cam surface thereon, a ball movable in said cavity, resilient means tending normally to urge said ball into a position engaging the rod and the cam surface of the cavity wall to a clamp the rod in stationary position, and a depressible member engageable with the ball to move the latter against the action of said resilient means out of engagement with said cam surface to release the rod for movement by said first named means.

2. In an apparatus of the character de' scribed, the combination of a support for a stack of articles to be fed, a rod projecting from said support, a counterweight connected to the end of the rod opposite the support and normally urging the rod and support to move in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the rod, a housing having a cavity therein through which said rod extends, one wall of said cavity having a cam surface thereon and therebelow a flaring portion, a ball movable in said cavity, a spring engaging said ball and tending normally to urge the ball into a position engaging the rod and the cam surface of the cavity wall to clamp the rod in stationary position, and a depressible member engageable with the ball to move the latter into the part of the cavity having the flaring wall portion to release the rod for movement by the counterweight.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

PAUL GANGLER. 

